Best-selling novelist Steve Berry to speak at library fundraiser

Joe Meyers

Updated 12:24 pm, Thursday, May 15, 2014

"The Lincoln Myth" is a historical thriller that touches on Abraham Lincoln's rarely talked about relationship with the Mormon Church in the lead-up to the Civil War.
Photo: Contributed Photo, Connecticut Post

"The Lincoln Myth" is a historical thriller that touches on Abraham...

Best-selling thriller writer Steve Berry will talk about his new novel "The Lincoln Myth" at a special event sponsored by the Friends of the Shelton Library on Monday, May 19.
Photo: Contributed Photo, Connecticut Post

More Information

Info Box

Page 1 of 1

A secret document that could lead to the dissolution of the United States and the various legends that have grown around Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War are just two of the elements in Steve Berry's latest mixture of high-powered thriller and historical novel, "The Lincoln Myth" (Ballantine Books, $27).

Berry's 13th novel once again follows his retired intelligence agent/bookstore owner hero Cotton Malone on an adventure that moves from Europe to various U.S. locales and back again with the excitement of a James Bond caper combined with the fascinating historical detail of a Dan Brown blockbuster.

The best-selling writer, who lives in Atlanta, has become a Connecticut favorite from his appearances here over the years, including a writers' workshop at the Bridgeport Library two years ago. On Monday, May 19, he will kick off his national book tour for "The Lincoln Myth" with a talk and signing for the Friends of the Shelton Public Libraries (the official publication date for the novel is May 20).

In a phone interview from Atlanta last week, Berry said as he researched the book he was surprised to see how much secession sentiment still boils in the country today due to dissatisfaction with the federal government.

"Eighty-thousand people signed a petition in Alaska ... 125,000 in Texas," he said, adding that it is still "not clear cut" whether or not states could secede now if enough of the population wanted to break away from the United States.

"The Constitution does not forbid (secession)," he said.

As Cotton Malone digs into a plot to divide the country, we learn a lot about the circumstances surrounding the writing of the Constitution and the various myths surrounding one of our most beloved presidents.

Berry points out that almost everything we know about the drafting of the Constitution stems from the account President James Madison withheld from publication until after all of the authors of the document were dead.

"A lot of it is extremely questionable," the novelist said of the Madison version. "We have no clue as to what happened except from what Madison told us."

Berry wonders what might have been left out of Madison's account in his stated intent to make the text more "readable."

"They could have had long talks about secession and states leaving (the Union)," the novelist said, adding that many of those who "seceded" from British rule with the American revolution might not have opposed states doing the same thing if the control of the federal government proved to be too onerous.

Berry does not mean to tarnish Lincoln's reputation by pointing out that he was the original "flip-flopper" -- going back and forth on the issue of slavery, for instance.

"The myths took over and he became `our greatest president.' I think the truth makes him great, too, because he had such a tough job," Berry said.

The novelist found himself struggling with the issue of secession as he researched and wrote "The Lincoln Myth."

"When I started the novel I would have told you that (the idea of) secession is silly. Now I see it as a check on the federal government. ... If the federal government can do anything it wants and we can do nothing about it ... (secession) is not un-American," he said.

"Let's be realistic. ... I'm not advocating revolution," Berry added of the way the novel examines the role of independence and secession throughout our history.

Like many of his thriller writer peers, Berry maintains a book-a-year pace that has made his fans happy to the tune of 18 million copies of his novels in print at the moment.

Because Berry comes across so many fascinating bits of history -- both U.S. and global -- in the course of his travels, the writer said he already knows where the next three novels will be taking him.

"I'm always on the look-out for ideas and when I find one I pounce on it. So, we're set through 2017," the novelist said, chuckling.